I've noticed despotic and Totalitarian leaders, once their rule has ceased, leaves behind a legacy of anarchy. Most of the time another despot comes to power but this is not always the case. Look at Ethiopia, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and others in recent history. The power prior to anarchy held sway over the populace in such a way as to keep order. I am in no way in approval of this but it is a fact of human nature this seems to be so.

Radical Islam seems to be a driving force of unrest mostly in the Middle East but also in other locals. On the other hand, America is a player in fostering unrest but its reach seems overextended. This seems to be a result of several memes; the CIA and other intelligence gathering ineptness, too many wars fought at the same time and its inability to effectively remove leaders that harm our interest. America's war on our Constitution seems to be an end result of the CIA's need to keep world unrest from unseating the status quo.

Before now it was the US in South and Central America that kept the despots in power and assassinated leaders who were considered threats to the direction the US wanted. Russia was also a large player in keeping its sphere of influence intact. Before that it was the Colonial European nations and before that each central power held sway over its own region and fostered unrest amongst its rivals so that a concerted offense might not be brought against the ruling class; see ' The Art of War.

It has only been a few decades since one power has had the opportunity to put together this global view and be able to make worldwide trouble. This will only continue until the world becomes Totalitarian or World War III happens. Maybe the latter happens right before the former; or maybe the other way around.

Biology taught me the concept of continued evolution between prey and predator. Consider the concept of antibiotics vs. bacteria or of a plant called Leafy Red Spurge. This is an invasive weed to farmers and it's only natural predator is a certain species of beetle. The beetle's main if not only food source it the Spurge so if it was not able to eat the Spurge it would most likely go extinct.

The Spurge develops toxins that the beetle is able to break down the toxins and is not harmed. The plant produces more toxins in succeeding generations so that the beetles becomes poisoned. The beetles on the other hand develops the ability to process more toxic levels in response and so staves off evolution. This is an escalation of evolution and has been happening for a long time, not just with these two species but in so many similar scenarios around the world.

There will come a time where either organism reaches a point where it can no longer beat the other. If the Spurge produces more toxins than the beetles can metabolize then the Spurge will grow and take choke out more agricultural crops than it already does. If the beetles can ultimately metabolizes more toxins than the beetles can produce then it will decimate the Spurge and food production will increase.

So goes it with the race of world powers. Can America develop it's intelligence at a rate that keeps pace, or keeps ahead, of those who want it's destruction, or will it lose steam and fall to the wasteland of other failed nations of history.

I propose a system for the accountability of rec/unrec votes. While this seems undemocratic (a vote is supposed to be secret), I feel this option can and is used as a tool by professional trolls to manipulate open discourse on this forum. I base this on the premise that many forum users have limited time to spend looking for posts that would not waste their time restraints. I see them only viewing posts based on the number of recs. If a post has low recs then a possibly pertinent post may may not be viewed as much as it would normally be and deserved based on content and not by manipulation of what is basically a poll.

This system of accountability could take several forms. It could mention the members' screen name that votes nay or yea. Another suggestion it to post a running count of the yeas and nays. This could be done with the number for the recs, a number for the unrecs and a total +/- overall as it currently stands.

Currently verbal response to an OP includes the screen name of the responder. I do not think it a moral issue that those who use rec/unrecs be given anonymity.

I find the present system for recs/unrecs problematic. I have noticed many other posters have similar attitudes and they make their feelings known. Some OPs in which I speak are gun issues, attacks on certain Conservative individuals related issues.

I realize there is great diversity at DU and of being a Democratic. That has been the great thing of being in a party that includes many diverse viewpoints. I would not have it any other way. In fact, the current thinking of the Republic Party is that their elected members need conform to the prevailing party plank or risk shunning and defeat in their next reelection bid.

I find many issues have several legitimate sides where there are reasons why a rec/unrec count remains low. However, a conserted action to manipulate the DU board, with respect to the rec/unrec option, is a real and ongoing threat to DU.

I see several problems with this proposal. There would be a greater load upon the servers. During times of high forum usage this extra load may not not be able to be sustained. However, I have noticed high forum usage does not occur often. Another issue would be more attacks on DU members who vote yea or nay on any certain issue. This could possibly lead to less voting on one issue by DU members who treasure their anonymity. However, the poster does make their feelings known when they leave a post.

Not the actual test driving as they buy their vehicles on the open market and the Volt has just been available to the public;

Yesterday, the company brought two examples up to our test track, along with several engineers to explain the car, point out its new features, and allow the staff to get behind the wheel. GM drove the two cars to our Connecticut Auto Test Center from Milford, Michigan—a trip of about 750 miles.

What we learned:

* The Volt's electric drive motor is rated at 110 kW, equivalent to about 150 hp. It uses another motor/generator—GM engineers call this an "electric machine"—connected to the gas engine rated at 50 kW. This is used to start the engine and also provides electrical power to drive the vehicle when the battery is depleted. The gas engine is a 1.4-liter four cylinder similar to the Chevrolet Cruze base engine, though configured for this unique application. * The Volt uses about half the capacity of its 16 kWh lithium-ion battery. This ensures good durability of the battery pack and provides extra boost than can be delivered from the engine-driven generator so the driver sees/feels no difference between EV mode and gas engine. To maximize the battery's life expectancy, the battery is never allowed to run completely down, nor is it ever allowed to take a maximum charge.

I am not sure you will be able to access this page. I have a subscription. Anyone else with one will be able to confirm this page if non-subscribers are not able to access it.

Stay tuned and be able to refute Rush with hard solid facts.

I believe and trust Consumers Reports with advice and testing reports over any and all other such reporting agencies. These other media sources are just advertising whores who mostly base their recs on company ad dollars.

Bed wetting, mama's boy syndrome, bullying, pathological lying, peroxide bleach dependency, dependency on symbols (US flag for instance) rather than the concepts say of the US Constitution and sagging boobies, so says the NIH. Film at 11:00.

By the first week of September, bush had shot down a Chinese fighter plane, while the US plane was secretly over Chinese territory. Could never figure out why Americans could not imagine what would have happened if that scenario were the other way around.

bush's first recession was in full swing.

Anybody remember what happened the first week of September of 2001 when certain low flying planes were involved in a plot to begin the fourth reich?

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